The Forsaken Ones, the Survivors
by Xanith
Summary: The Diplo stumbles onto an decaying ancient ship two years after the events of SO3. With old threats surfacing, can the relics of the past be used against the enemies of today? Can pieces of data experience anything more than programming along the way?
1. A door to the past

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean or Characters, they are owned by Tri-Ace and SquareEnix... Likewise, Armored Core is the property of Agetec.

A/N: Let me say this right now and get it out of the way, I will remove this story if it is requested. That said, on with the story... 

_Silence...How long have I been here?_

_Does it really matter?_

_Do I really deserve to live after what I've done?_

_What have I become?_

The mind set itself back into hibernation...

"Ma'am?" A junior officer stared at the panel aboard the _Diplo_.

"What is it, Silas?" Maria said tiredly. _Sure, I disbanded Quark, but somebody has to see this ship back for it's final refit, right? But days turned into months, months into two years._ _Trading might not be as exciting, but it's a surefire profit after what happened._

_Ever since our battle with the creator, everyone's been so distant. Mirage and Cliff went back to Klaus. They write every once and a while, but I miss that lovable oaf, and the woman who tried to raise me. _

_The Elicoorians decided to return home, Adray and Roger. Albel and Nel. I hear that those two are finally close to hitting it off on the right foot. Good for them, about time, but good for them. Peppita returned to her life in the circus, much to Roger's disappointment. Poor kid. _

_Adray's still trying to give Clair away, much to her disappointment. Poor Clair, if Adray were my father, I'd knock him one. Wonder if she has..._

_Sophia and Fayt returned to their families, but Fayt wasn't isn't the same. After that fight, he emerged changed, a shell of himself. He's not as chipper, not as vibrant as he used to be, and Sophia thought that it would be best for him to see his mother. I haven't heard from them since. It's not that I haven't written them, they just don't answer. I don't know why I even try._

_Maybe I've changed a little as well, I don't remember doing that for anyone before. The new crew faces are sending me for a spin, but that can't be helped. I've learned to take little things as they come, ask for help when the big things come up. Although, I finally did get rid of Lieber, thank the maker. He finally found himself a girlfriend, can't remember her name though..._

"I'm picking up on an object low starboard," Silas answered, interrupting her train of thought again.

"So what's so special about it?" Maria asked. _Why can't Marietta be here? She always knew that I needed a little more information than that, even what type of object it is would be nice._

"It's a ship," Silas responded quickly, and furiously began typing, "I think."

"You think?" Maria asked blankly, returning to her thoughts. _I don't have much to smile about._

"Well, it's emitting a distress call, but on a frequency that hasn't been used in over a few thousand years. It's frame matches the time period of the frequency. It looks like it's been beat to hell, but there are a few active systems." Silas explained.

"You mentioned a distress call?" Maria asked, stroking her chin thoughtfully. Her interest piqued. _A few thousand years? It still works?_

"Yes ma'am, I'll play it back." Silas hit a few keys and the view screen changed to show a sparking bridge.

It was evident that the ship had been in a battle, most of the bridge crew appeared to be dead, save a lone person. He was a little over six feet with sand colored hair that got darker as it reached the end. His slate eyes stared into what was presumably a camera, he was bleeding from a gash in his head, making his face white as a sheet. The screen flickered a little and the man spoke through the static.

"Tran...rft..._Khalam Sonai..._have been hit...eteor show...ost drives and life support...are ... of us...we...pl...selve...in...ion...sources...ny...ear...his...elp us." Slias took the call off the screen.

"That's it ma'am, it just keep repeating."

"How far are we out from transport range?" Maria asked. _Those poor people, what were they trying to do?_

"20 minutes, Ma'am." Silas responded. Lancar, who was silent with the rest of the bridge crew, spoke up,

"Oh, no, don't tell me..." He trailed off.

"Get us within transporter range and beam me and a small detachment in." Maria ordered, grateful for anything that would serve to break up the monotonous life of a trading vessel. The bridge became a hive of activity. Maria quietly slipped out towards the equipment lockers. _Who was that man? His eyes, they seemed stretched, broken._

"We've reached beaming range," the intercom panel spoke in the equipment room. Maria punched the reply button.

"Thank you, have Lancar and two others meet me in the transporter room." Maria picked out a light and a rescue bag and left for the transporter room. _I can already hear Lancar's speech about how..._

"This is a bad idea," Lancar warned.

"They're probably all dead anyway, loosen up, Lancar," the transporter chief joked.

"That's not what I meant," Lancar sulked, sighing in defeat. In truth he was just as bored as Maria was with the quiet lifestyle they were going through.

"Alright, send us over," Maria spoke, the group stepped into the transporter. A swirl of blue light encircled the group and they were gone...

Aboard the _Khalam Sonai_, a small sensor pinged at the approaching vessel.

It's subroutines began to try to reawaken the ship from it's sleep, but failed. There was not enough energy available for that.

Over the centuries some of the suspension tubes had failed, killing their occupants until only two remained. One had willingly shut down her suspension tube and implanted her consciousness in the ship's computer.

_Is this what it's like to die? _

The ship began to summon its meager reserves to recycle what air it could before the main computer shut down for a final time...

A swirling column of light materialized on the bridge of the _Khalam Sonai. _They turned on their lights to reveal exposed wires, inches of dust, and a slightly metallic smell. Maria looked around the bridge. _My word, it is as if time has ceased to pass here. Okay, focus on the message. They were trying to do something._

"Silas, according to records, was there any way to preserve a ship's crew for extended periods of time?" Maria spoke into her headset.

"One moment," typing could be heard through the headset. Silas spoke after a moment, "It appears that the crew on a ship of this size would have some form of cryogenic stasis, it's crude, but it might still be operational."

"Can you try to find us a way there?" She asked. _Making contact with any survivors is a time critical objective, and I'm not sure that any of the crew could have survived this long._

"Alright," More typing came through as Silas rescanned the interior of the ship, "There's a problem, we'll have to beam you there directly. Whatever happened to the ship did a real number inside and out the access corridors to the stasis chambers have been breached. Sensors do report that the room itself is fine. Transporting in five."

The group was teleported into vast room that was surprisingly clean. The walls were at a diagonal with tubes lining them as far as the eye could see. Very few of the tubes looked serviceable, many were still open. Maria looked at the far end of the room, the tubes on that side were closed.

"Look down there," Maria said. One of the tubes still had a working display, but the letters were garbled after years of function. _After all these years, incredible. Who were you? What was your story?_

The small group spread around the closed tubes.

"This one's gone, and this one, and this one too," Lancar went down a row of tubes that contained bleached bones lying on an incline in tattered rags. Maria took the tube that had the readout display, but stopped after several minutes of trying to decipher what was gibberish in any case.

She peered into the tube beyond the readout into the tube and gasped. _The man from the recording. Is he still alive, after all this time? Who the hell built a ship that could survive 5000 years? More importantly, why?_

"Silas, could you put Dr. Sheshina on this channel?" Maria was speaking into her headset just as the rest of the team had finished searching the other tubes.

"The rest of the tubes are gone, they look like they failed a long time ago." Lancar called from the other end of the tubes.

"Yes, Maria, you needed to talk to me?" Dr. Sheshina was speaking through the headset.

"Are you familiar with stasis equipment? How it works medically?" Maria asked, tapping her foot on the floor.

"It's rather backwards in today's knowledge, but it works. Why?" Sheshia asked.

"We've found a someone in a stasis tube. I need to know, can we transport him from the tube directly or if we need to try to reaninmate him here?" Maria asked. _We might have come all this way for nothing if we need to do it here, this ship looks like it's ready to fall apart._

"Hold one while I pull up the information," Sheshina said. Again with the clacking of keys.

"Who is he?" Lancar had appeared behind Maria, staring into the tube with an inquisitive gaze.

"I don't know, but it looks like he is the only survivor of a several thousand year old crew," Maria said, her foot stopped, "I think he's the one from the distress call."

"I think that we can just transport him if his vitals are stable, could you check them please?" Sheshina came back on the line. _Thank you for the small favors, assuming that these things were safe._

Maria put her hand to her head and sighed in relief.

"Alright, beam us out," Maria said. _Wait, we need to find the computer banks, find out what happened. Ah, let Lancar do it. _"Scratch that, four to beam out. Lancar, take one other person and find the computer banks. Find out what happened here." The rest of them beamed out, leaving a rather befuddled Lancar with a confused crewman looking at the empty tube blankly.

"Alright, you heard her," Lancar sighed, and then under his breath, "It's going to be a long day."


	2. What was found

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean or Characters, they are owned by Tri-Ace and SquareEnix... Likewise, Armored Core is the property of Agetec.

A/N: Wow...24 hours and I already have a review. And it's a positive one at that. Thank you for the positive review. I'm glad that I have captured someone's interest, especially with my first attempt at fan fiction. Here's the next chapter...

A person awoke in the _Diplo_ infirmary. _Where am I? What happened?_

The figure looked around blankly as information poured into his head. _Looks like some kind of hospital.__Why am I here? _

A slow numbness crept up his body as he lay back down. _The questions can wait until later_...

Maria awoke with a start at the chirping on her desk. She wiped the veil of sleep from her eyes and hit the light switch. She looked as her disheveled appearance became clearer in the mirror.

_Why bother right now? _She gave up after a few moments of trying to straighten herself out in front of the mirror and walked over to her desk hit the pulsing red switch. A very worried Silas appeared on the screen.

"Ma'am, our guest came to, but blacked out again after a few seconds. I thought you might want to take a look at him," Silas said, using his droning voice.

"I'll be right down," Maria said. _What was that about?_

She shrugged it off and showered quickly, changing into a spare set of clothes. After she walked down to the infirmary,

"Alright, she's here, you can go Silas," Dr. Sheshina said kindly. _She always did have that maternal air about her. I can't remember how she came to be on the crew though._

"Ma'am, we found a few more things from the craft that we thought were interesting, they are in the cargo bay for sorting at your leisure," Silas informed as he left, taking a tablet with him.

Maria looked at Sheshina for a moment, taking her in. The doctor appeared to be in her late twenties, but being a Nedian, looks were almost certainly deceiving. Her trim figure neatly fit her white coat. The young doctor's cream skin flushed slightly at the attention.

"Maria?" She asked questioningly.

"Sorry, anyway, how's our mystery patient?" Maria asked quickly, startled by her hesitance to speak. _Why was I staring again? She's my friend. F-R-I-E-N-D._

"He must have been trough an awful lot, right?" Sheshina pondered quietly in her own, serene way.

"How so?" Maria gazed at the man, covered up to his neck with the sheets on the bed.

"His limbs have been either partially or completely replaced with cybernetic components unlike anything I've ever seen from his time period." Sheshina tried to explain, pointing out between her own tablet and the form on the bed, "Scans have shown that one arm has been replaced, the other partially replaced. Looks like a similar thing happened to the legs. Most muscle has been replaced, with the remaining bones reinforced with what I think is some kind of unidimensional carbon lattice. Also, some type of sub-dermal plating present, similar material but different weave. His eyes have been slightly altered and augmented, but are otherwise fine. His mind, however, shows severe restructure. Like someone took it out and put up a scaffolding around it, restructure. Also, I'm noticing his blood to be slightly tainted with some kind of machines."

"Well what does it all mean?" Maria asked. Genetics, she knew. Prosthetics and extensive surgery, not so much.

"That's just the thing," Sheshina said, confused at the question, "I don't know. Whoever did this, looks like they took care to hide the handiwork from careful inspection. I didn't pick anything up but the artificial limbs until the third time I ran the scan. That and, well, I'm a doctor, not a mechanic."

"So, is he even human?" Maria asked. _What's with all the upgrades? Military? Experimental? Unwitting guinea pig?_

"Essentially, yes, not much different from Silas or you. He just has had most of the body replaced. I still had to patch up several minor injuries that stopped from healing while he was in stasis," Sheshina responded, cycling through her various monitors on her tablet.

Maria sighed relief, the warmth running through her body. _Why did I do that?_ _I haven't felt like this since I found out about Dr. Leingod's experiment._

She put that thought in her 'to find out' category, returning her attention to the present before she made the situation any more awkward.

"Okay, what now?" Maria asked, tossing her hands up in the air. Her mind desperately searched for a point to this.

"I was just about to wake him up. Care to stay?" Sheshina asked, pulling out a small hypospray full of stimulants. A foreboding chill went down the bluenette's spine, but she shrugged it off as a malfunctioning environmental control.

"Sure," Maria said, and stepped back nervously when she thought she saw the body twitch.

Sheshina gently began to move a hypo to the patient's neck. About halfway to the man's neck, his slate eyes shot open. He jumped to his feet with blinding speed, and locked Sheshina in up against him with the hypo pressed to her neck in a whirlwind of motion.

"Don't make me hurt her," the man said quietly, leaving no doubt that he would do it if absolutely necessary. Sheshina's hazel eyes were wide with fright, a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead.

"It's okay," Maria said with an attempt disarming charm. _Did he hear that entire conversation?_

"The hell it is," He growled, inching the hypo closer as he changed the dosage to near lethal levels, "You're going to take me back to Sonai for study, I'm not going back to that nightmare."

"It's fine," Maria insisted, watching the sight with horror as her friend was held inches from her heart bursting, "We're not going to hurt you."

"Where are we?" He asked, maintaining an air of professionalism. The slate eyes began to soften imperceptibly.

"You are in our infirmary," Maria explained as she spread her arms out wide, "We're not going to hurt you. We found your vessel adrift and took you out of stasis."

"How long?" The man asked, holding the hypo closer. Maria stood there dumbstruck, not knowing where to start, "How long?"

"No, it's been several thousand years, I'm sorry," Maria said, making no sudden movements.

"That means..." His eyes shrunk in an instant, his shaking hand dropped the hypo and let Sheshina go. He fell back down onto the infirmary bed, broken and defeated.

_No, this can't be happening...Brooke...Khalan...everyone. __They...they..._

He stared at Maria, letting the words and gravity of time sink in. _Why did...WHY THE HELL IS HER HAIR BLUE?_

"Yes, I'm sorry," Maria sat down beside him. His suit tightened as he pinned the hypo to the floor. She stood right back up from his reaction and sat on the bed across from him next to a still frightened Sheshina who mumbled something about the revelations one comes to when one is about to die.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Asked the man after several moments of self pity.

"Maria Traydor, you're on my ship, the _Diplo_," she responded kindly. She took Sheshina's hand and held it lightly, intending to comfort the shaken doctor. Instead, Sheshina encircled Maria in a death grip and began to quietly sob. _Poor girl._

"My name is James Koltarn," he held out his hand for a proper introduction. He looked sadder than when he was on the recording. Maria shook his hand, he limply let it fall back beside him. _Who wouldn't be this broken? He's just lost his the only people he's ever known, and there probably isn't anyone who's remotely related to him in modern times. The outsider, a four function calculator in the age of supercomputers._

Somehow the feeling of loneliness he exuded resonated with Maria. She felt slightly confused, but masked it under the guise that she had just witnessed a near death experience.

"So what happened?" Maria asked, trying to settle into Sheshina's embrace.

"Long story short, we were on our way to Mars from Earth, start our lives fresh. No one knew who I was, part of the reason that we were going to Mars. We had gotten a little bit of a reputation for ourselves as AC pilots-"

"Wait, ACs? Those were real?" Maria asked in shock. _Didn't Fayt used to play a game on Earth with machines called ACs? What was it called... Air Conditioner? No... come on, think...oh, that's right, Armored Core._

"Yes, well, we were going to live away from the corporations on Earth, try to live a normal life for once. We all had our reasons for leaving. On the way there, a dust cloud knocked out the ship sensors, we never saw the meteor inside the cloud. It hit the AC bay and caused several secondary explosions. We barely had time to make it to stasis before life support failed completely. The engines had been destroyed in a secondary explosion. How I survived past the others? Well, as your doctor said, she doesn't know what half of my components do. Neither do I," He shrugged and looked up dejectedly at her, "So, what now? I promise not to hurt any of your crew again, and it's not like I have anywhere to go."

"Well," _It's not that I don't trust you, it's...it's, well, alright, I guess that's it. I don't know you, how can I trust your word?_ "I guess we could assign you some temporary quarters and some suitable attire for the time being." _And maybe the customary guards right outside your door, or the transport lock to beam you into space. That sounds safer than risking the lives of my crew._

"Thank you," he nodded, then a thought appeared to strike him from his gloom, "Did you happen to bring anything back from the _Khalam Sonai_?"

Maria stared blankly at him. _How did he know that?_

"I was told that we did, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet." She paused for a moment. _Maybe he could be useful after all, he can help us identify the items. I'm sure to have no clue what they are, Silas wouldn't be any better off._ "Would you like to take a look at them?"

"Sure, a little bit of home couldn't hurt," he said, standing as he tried to readopt his professionalism. Maria let go of Sheshina, who had calmed down, and stood.

She poked her head out to see two surprised guards aiming at the door, their fingers slipped on their phase rifles and fired. Two bolts of light emerged from the weapons and sped true towards Maria. In the blink of an eye, James shoved Maria out of the way and dodged one bolt. The other impacted his right torso, slightly burning the flesh and making a decent hole in his jumpsuit. He flinched from the hit and searing pain as the energy round rended his flesh. As quickly as he had taken the round he shoved his hands forward to grab the rifles, forcing the rifles to aim at the ground before they could fire another shot. He shifted his grip and pulled the energy cells, dropping them onto the deck.

"Wha...?" Maria gasped, pondering what had just transpired. _Those rifles could have killed me. How is he that fast? Shouldn't he be doubled over in pain?_

James walked over to the supply closet for the infirmary and took out a small piece of gauze and a roll of tape. Sheshina was now watching James as he took the gauze and taped it over the open wound.

"You need to train your men better," James edged his words, then continued in a kinder tone, "So we were going to look at parts?" _And you yourself could stand to use some weaker weapons: those only caused minimal damage, but still. Those weapons aren't ship-safe._

"You're hit..." Sheshina began reaching for more effective things than gauze. James waved her off.

"I'll live," he brushed off her concern and continued out into the hall. He looked at Maria, who eyed his makeshift patch, it smelt of burnt flesh, of death. He paused in thought for a moment, then noticed where her gaze rested. He tore it off and shoved it in his pocket.

"What the he..." Maria started, staring at what had been a smoking hole not moments earlier. James silenced her, and gesturing for her to lead the way.

"One of those upgrades," He said, shrugging. Maria was left with a blank look on her eyes. _No one should heal that fast, not from a phase rifle shot, or any type of injury, well alright, maybe Klausians. But not humans, even if only remotely._

"What happened to you anyway?" Maria asked in an attempt to regain her composure, "I mean, before you left."

"That's a story that I'd rather not tell right now," he said quietly, clutching the chest of his jumpsuit, tracing patterns in the fabric that was left. Maria wanted to press but decided against it.

"I see," Maria said and opened the door to the cargo hold. James followed her into the ill lit room.

"Oh, you're up, my name is Silas Kino," Silas looked up from his tablet and extended his free hand to James. James shook his hand but gazed longingly at the equipment. "Go ahead, feel free. We think they're weapons. Some are personal effects, we thought that some of them might be yours?"

"Alright," James started tossing items various items aside, "Let's see, broken," one item that looked like a steel cylinder was tossed aside,

"Broken," another few odd shaped items tossed aside, James stopped at one item that looked like a handgun and chuckled darkly.

"Hair drier," he tossed the strange looking item to Maria. _Use it in good health, maybe it'll help with the whole hair thing._

He went through a few more before he grinned at the sight of some choice objects, he picked up a few parts and assembled them into what looked like one of the Old Earth assault rifles. "My old gun."

He took the rifle and a few boxes of rather large looking cylinders of two sizes. One of them was about twice as big as Silas's thumb, the other was as thick as James' arm. "You have any spare blocks of hull plating and gravity control?"

"Yes, over there, why?" Maria answered the question and pointed to the other side of the hold. _What is he planning?_

"Alright, place an additional field of 2.2 gs, pulling toward the wall behind me, around that metal block," James directed, hefting the rifle. He shifted around in the awkward grip until he found a comfortable hand position and aimed at the block he selected.

"All done," Silas said, looking up from his tablet. Maria gasped in horror at James' smile. _Wait, he not going to_...

Maria's train of though was interrupted by two very loud cracks as flame leapt from the rifle. A couple of clinks could be heard as two spent shell casings fell to the floor, also two distant clinks were heard a few seconds later. The blue shells deformed as they hit the ground.

James quickly loaded one of the larger cylinders into the bottom of the weapon and flicked a switch on the rifle. He steadied his aim and sent the round spiraling towards the hapless block of duranium. The round impacted the block and exploded, fracturing the block. James lowered the rifle and went behind the block. The block crumbled as he lightly tapped it with his foot. The entire stream of events took less than 15 seconds.

"Well, you wanted weapons data, here it is," He hefted his rifle, which looked like it had been made for inhuman hands. "This gun was designed to be an AC killer, I doubt that much could stand up to it. Problem is, the factory that made these exploded before I left for Mars. This gun is probably a real antiquity right now."

"WHAT THE HELL MAKES YOU THINK THAT I WANTED WEAPONS DATA ABOUT FIRING THE WEAPON ON THE SHIP?" Silas yelled, staring at the pile of slag that was the block of duranium, then added, "By the way, thanks for not puncturing the hull and killing us all."

"Well, go take a look," James ushered Silas to the block. He looked at Maria and grinned sheepishly, "Sorry."

"Let's just forget that happened, in the mean time, would you let us store that rifle in the ship's armory?" Maria asked, still trying to appear calm and in control. _Who does he think he is? Firing that kind of gun on a ship? _

Her mind wandered off on a lucky tangent. _Damn, that was a 4 meter thick block of duranium. Those rounds went through it with a 2.2g field._

James regarded her for a moment as he cradled the rifle in his arm like a child.

"If I really have to," he quipped and handed the rifle to Silas, who had stopped looking at the duranium. _I better get that gun back._

Silas ushered the weapon out of the room. James returned to the pile of items and began to sort through them again.

"What are you looking for?" Maria asked as he continued to search the possessions.

"Well, I thought I saw..." He trailed off as he pulled a green duffel back with some characters on it. _Please let it be in here._

He opened the bag and a wave of indescribable sadness enveloped him. _So it was here..._

Oddly enough, the book he procured from the bag was one of the few things that was found without any dust buildup. He dropped the bag to the floor, instead inspecting a blue bound book with writing that Maria couldn't recognize.

"What is it?" Maria couldn't take her eyes off the strange object. _Where is he going with this?_

"My journal," James replied, hugging the book somberly before opening it. _ Great, an android with a journal, can this guy be really any weirder? But, I guess it could be kind of cute, considering what he's been though. _

He pulled a picture from the weathered pages, and his face saddened. It was a picture of him and a woman, roughly 3 inches shorter than him, with sapphire eyes and honey colored hair. Her cheeks were vibrant red and she was smiling. He was grinning just as much. A cherry tree was in full bloom in the background. Maria looked back at James as he traced the lines of the picture before putting it back in the book. _Brooke, I'm sorry._

"Who is that?" Maria pointed at the picture. He stared at her sullenly, snapping the book shut.

"Why do you care so much?" He asked, letting the entirety of his loss sink in. Maria backed off a little under the weight of his eyes. _He's right, why do I? I don't...do I?_

"Never mind, let me show you to your quarters." Maria beckoned. James picked up the green duffel and a second bag, along a couple of other strange looking items.

He followed down the hall towards the crew quarters. She led him to standard room for the _Diplo _crew. A soft bed, comfortable chair, small footlocker, and console mounted on a desk were on the room. "This is your room."

"Thank you for your kindness," James said, he shut the door. Maria stood outside the door for a moment. _Why do I feel sad for him?_


	3. A Relic's History

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean or any of the characters, They are owned by the fine people at Squareenix and Tri-Ace. I don't own Armored Core, that is owned by Agetec.

A/N: It may be a little more time between updates, during the summer, I simply do not have the bandwidth to upload quickly, 56k being, well...56k. To compensate I'll try to update chapters in pairs.

James looked around the room and set his duffel bag onto the bed. He glanced through it. _Relics of a bygone age._

He lifted out a slate utilitarian jumpsuit, small for him, he traced the fabric and gave it the once over. He traced the name over and over on the patch, _Aion_. _Brooke_.

He reopened his journal, took the photograph out, and sat down on his bed. _The last time I saw her truly happy. Someone, something, stole more than time from us. I would have given anything to save you, and stop what happened. It caused you so much pain and there wasn't anything that I could do to stop it. I never got my chance to say goodbye, and now I'm over a thousand years too late. _

A tear rolled down his cheek with another thought to long before circumstances shoved him into the stasis tube. _To call me a machine would be accurate, but would it have been so wrong to call be human? To call me someone who belonged?_

He laid down on the bed and curled up like a cat, weepingfor time he had lost. _I tucked her into her tube, told her everything would be alright, that we'd see each other again on Mars. Why the hell did the computer do this to me? Doom me to pass the end of my days in this era? _

James drifted off to sleep with the questions wandering in his mind...

Maria stirred in her bed for the forth time. _Why can't I sleep? _

She got up and changed into a jet black jumpsuit, and a blue cloak, forgoing her combat dress. She stared at it longingly. _So many memories, but this nostalgia isn't like me, is it? I sent out that email to Fayt about our find. Maybe recent events will evoke a response._

She turned on her computer and checked for messages. She stared at the screen blankly for a moment, blinking in disbelief. _Well, I'll be damned. They do write._

She carefully read the message:

_Maria,_

_I think that this is some kind of ploy. Didn't you really think that we would have written if we wanted to? Honestly, you must be pretty desperate, stupid, or both. Besides, I married Fayt. He's mine now, and we now have a bouncing baby girl. This will be our last transmission, stay the hell away from us._

_-Sophia Liengod_

She stared at the screen in surprise. _So, the mouse can roar.__Well, that explains a few things. Sophia always did seem a little possessive, but I never really liked her anyway. I was more interested in Fayt, at least he was useful in a fight. _

_That and he lost a parent. He knows what it's like to lose someone close to him. Sophia had her parents, she just chose to hang out with Fayt more often, didn't she? Wait, is that why I feel an affinity to our new guest, because he lost those who were dear to him? Because he knows the suffering that we survivors must endure?_

She walked out the door, wandering the halls of the _Diplo _aimlessly, her heart taking control. She wasn't looking where she was going until she almost hit the door. _Why am I here? No...am I...that can't be...I hardly..._

Her hand moved towards the door chime, unbidden to do so. _Wait, stop, don't do it._

Her heart wouldn't listen to her mind as it seized control of her body.

_You just need to get to know him better, make an effort, _her heart told her. Her hand hovered over the button as her mind pondered the message from her heart in puzzlement. The door slid open suddenly.

_What is she doing here?_ James met her gaze with a mix of curiosity and panic.

"I...um..." She trailed off. _Was he crying?_

She saw the telltale redness, as the memory of peace gazed through the chaos that now played in the raven's eyes.

"Yes I was," He answered her thoughts without knowing them, quickly averting his eyes to wipe them with his sleeve. "Do you need anything?"

"I...I..." She stammered for a moment, desperately looking for the words to say, any words would do. Finding none for her to say, she bolted away from the scene. Only then did the raven dare look at the captain, feeling puzzled but unwilling to follow. He also felt cooling relief, realizing that he had forgotten to breathe. _What was that about?_

He went back into his room and, this time, looked around for the lock to the door.

She didn't stop running until she reached the infirmary. Opening the door and ducked in, sucking in air from her exertions. The memory of her strength played in her mind, reminding her of how far she had fallen in two years. _A short run never used to bother me, well if that was a run._

"Maria," Sheshina looked up from her notes on her new 'patient.' The doctor's eyes lit up with delight as she put down the tablet.

"Se, do you have a minute?" Maria asked apprehensively, using her nickname for her friend, something she rarely used with anyone, obviously hoping for a yes.

"For you, I have many," Sheshina responded. She indicated for Maria to sit.

"Well, you know how I value your judgment?" Maria asked. Sheshina looked at her in shock as she procured a set of teacups and a teapot. Maria took a thermos of hot water from the shelf in her secret hiding spot.

"Wait, you value my what?" Sheshina asked, milking her disbelief act for all it was worth. Maria's hair swept across her face as she shook her head, pouring a cup of tea for Sheshina and herself. She knew the doctor did things like this often.

"I've been having these feelings..." She trailed off, sipping her tea. The Nedian looked at her, pausing in thought.

"Let me guess," Sheshina started, "You're having mixed feelings about our guest."

Maria's muscles became harder duranium cables as she pondered how the doctor knew what she was thinking.

"How did you know?" She asked after not coming up with a satisfactory answer, glancing left and right nervously.

"How old do you really think I am?" Sheshina asked jokingly, "I've seen this kind of thing before."

"I don't know ... 20?" Maria guessed. Sheshina burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

"My...that's certainly a new record, I'm sorry. Remember, my age is a secret," She managed to squeak out after pounding the table to focus her attention. "So tell me, what kind of feelings."

"I don't know, I feel a affinity towards him, some bizarre attachment that I don't understand," Maria explained, trying to put her thoughts into words. The task was proving more difficult than she originally anticipated.

"I see. I think there's something more, come on, out with it," Sheshina grinned, hiding her face behind her cup, already anticipating Maria's reaction.

"WHAT?" Maria exclaimed with dilated eyes. Sheshina laughed at her captain's response. _What does she mean by that? There isn't anything... is there?_

"Maria, I've said it before: your lifestyle is unhealthy," The doctor took a tiny sip of the golden liquid to compose herself, "You use me as a confidante, but it isn't enough to vent all of your negative emotions. Even when you do talk to me, you don't open up to me enough, or not in a way that would help you. Think, you haven't even begun to socialize with any of the men on the crew, or any men your age...or the rest of the crew. You haven't ever gotten involved with anyone outside of Fayt and the others, two years ago. You write them, but those kinds of relationships don't work and you know it."

"I know, but," Maria said softly, feeling slightly uncomfortable under the imaginary interrogation light that Sheshina had sicked on her, "I have to try some way."

"You've opened up a little to me, but then again, so has everyone else on the crew. The most worrying fact is that you haven't shown even a remote amount of interest in the way that would be healthy for a girl your age, or even a girl a few years younger," Sheshina took a little more tea and suddenly looked very worried, "Wait... YOU DON'T LIKE ME, DO YOU?" The young Nedian asked in alarm. Maria spat out her sip of tea in shock, coughing several times.

"WHAT? NO!" She exclaimed, struggling to regain her composure as she wiped her face off with the sleeve of her jumpsuit. _Why would she ask such things?_

"Okay, just checking," Sheshina said hesitantly. Maria couldn't tell if the doctor was happy or sad with the answer that she gave as she wiped her face off with the sleeve of her white coat. Maria set her empty teacup down.

"So what would suggest that I do? I'm at a loss right now," Maria asked confused in light of her friend's recent reaction.

"I think that you should at least try to get to know our passenger a bit better. He's cute, lost, and he has a blank slate. Show interest in filling it, do something healthy for a girl your age. Lord knows that if you don't try to take him, I will," Sheshina shooed Maria out of her office with mock anger. Maria turned to object. "Don't worry about the cups, I'll take care of them. Just think about what I've said, alright?"

Sheshina shut the door, leaving a confused Maria out in the hall. _Get to know him? Unhealthy behavior? I can't believe that she thought I was...should I follow her advice? She did seem a little too eager to get rid of me. _ Her thoughts were cut off by a voice.

"What was that about earlier?" James asked from down the hall. James had the same rumpled jumpsuit that he had on when they found him, but there was a noticeable patch job over where the hole had been earlier. _Alright, what is she thinking now? Forget about earlier._

"I can't remember. I was chatting with Dr. Sheshina. She thinks you're kinda cute," Maria tried to make playful conversation. _ Sheshina hasn't really steered me wrong yet, no harm in trying._

"R-really?" James blushed at the remark. _She said that? After what I did to her?_

"Well, when was the last time you ate anything?" Maria asked, realizing that she hadn't had anything but that cup of tea for the last 28 hours.

"About 5000 years ago," James said sheepishly as his stomach rumbled in protest, "That's kinda why I'm up."

"Well, let's see if I can't teach you the wonders of food replicators. Come," Maria joked, beckoning the mysterious person. They went to the cafeteria. _Ha, like we have a proper chef right now._

Maria looked at the once crowded mess hall. _They all wanted to leave, I won't stop them if any of the current crew wants to leave either. Sure Quark no longer had a purpose, and I disbanded it, but it's rather lonely around without the familiar faces. I wonder what the others are doing. Lancar gave his notice that when we reach Klaus, he'll leave too. That would make me the last of the Quark crew to stay aboard the Diplo, wouldn't it? Is this at all similar to what he feels like, the last survivor?_

She looked at James with a sadness that only scratched the surface of what she felt. James took a step back.

"Did I say something wrong?" He asked, alert to anything. _Uhh..I hope I haven't done anything offensive...spacing hurts...  
_

"Nothing," Maria shook her head as she realized that he was talking during her cognition, and showed James the food replicator, "This is a simple machine, you enter what you want here," she pointed a small keyboard in displayed in English, "and the food is assembled here," she motioned to a small tray on the side of the curious machine.

She entered in for a full breakfast to demonstrate, including a large stack of pancakes and an over-easy cheese omelet that took a plate all on it's own, all complete with a glass of grapefruit juice. James ordered a deep bowl of oatmeal and a tall peach smoothie that had several chunks of something floating in it. The sat at one of the deserted tables. Maria ate quietly, James picked at his food, both tried to avoid eye contact.

"So..." James began awkwardly, "I shouldn't have assumed anything."

"Hm?" Maria was off in thought, not really paying attention.

"The incident in the medbay," James said, his head turned down at his food.

"Oh...that..." Maria trailed off, accepting the unspoken apology. _I think I would have done the same thing. He isn't to blame for that...I think._

"You asked me what my story was earlier. Would you like to hear it now?" He asked, not turning his head up from his food.

"I thought you said that you didn't want to tell it," Maria said. James looked up at her from his food.

"Well, I feel that if I'm going to be staying here, then at least someone should know where I come from," James explained, making eye contact for the first time in the meal.

"AND..." Maria said expectantly. _Come on, there has to be some other reason why you are telling me this._

"You just happen to be here now? By way of apology for the incidents earlier? Either one is valid," James said, looking back down at his food.

"Alright, so...what's your story? I mean, before the incident." Maria said. James sighed.

"Well, as I said, I am an AC pilot. This sole fact has gotten me into trouble more times than I can count. It's also how I met a young woman named Brooke Aion," James looked at Maria sadly as he said that name, "We hit it off right away, I met her father, went through all the right steps. Best of friends and all that, but I rather thought of her as a younger sibling. Then a group of people approached me, offering me a hefty sum of credits if I would participate in their experiment, I turned them down."

"What was the experiment?" Maria interrupted. James was slightly taken aback at her inability to catch the, in his mind simple, implication he had made.

"I am the product of their experiment, the perfect AC pilot without the messiness of neural interface software. They scraped what was left of my body out of the cockpit after an ambush that they had planned."

A few hard creases of anger etched themselves in his face as his eyes flashed at the memory of that incident. Maria backed up slightly, her hand inching to her emergency phase gun, but stopped when his face regained it's serenity and he continued,

"An artificial construct that was as deadly out of the cockpit as it was in it, able to blend in with a crowd and possibly become an assassin. They succeeded: I was...am a forth generation construct, back when they still had emotions but were finally stable, and they were more effective I might add. They found me too hazardous to manage with my emotions _and_ memory, so they locked up my memories and put me in stasis. It took about two years before I had subconsciously revived myself and began the startup procedures. By that time, they had finished locking my memory and tried to overwrite what they could with their own. They had me thinking that I was a full android, and not a recycled pilot. Brooke found me after I had awoken, she freed me from their plans. We fled and tried to return to our normal lives as Ravens, well...as normal was a mercenary pilot of a forty ton deathtrap can get. That was a short lived notion, and we decided to flee to Mars to start our lives again. You know the rest." James shrugged.

"So, who was Brooke? You seem quite attached to her," Maria asked. James reached into his pocket and fished the photograph that Maria had seen earlier. He pointed to the woman in the photo.

"That's her, that duffel in my quarters, is all I have left of her. As I said before, she was my best friend back at the nest, as close to a sister as I got. However, I am at a loss for what to do now. I mean, it's not as if I have any skills that would be useful," James pondered, finishing his bowl of oatmeal.

"Well, you could always stay here. Lancar gave his notice and will be leaving at our next port of call, and we'll need replacements for other positions. We might be able to find you something," Maria said, politely pausing to finish the stack of pancakes and started on the omelet before continuing, "I also think that I know a few people who would be pleased meeting you."

"However, I hardly know you," James stopped the drink halfway up to his mouth, his eyebrow arced in interest. _You should probably be defensive about this: others James, she is thinking of introducing you to others. Remember, vivisection hurts._

"Well, what would you like to know? It's been a while since I've been this talkative," Maria put forth, taking another bite of the omelet.

"Well," James set his smoothie on the table and leaned forward, arching his fingers, "For starters, where are you from?"

"I was originally from Earth," Maria said, placing her fork on the table after finishing the omelet.

"Well, that was easy, but not what I meant," James winced at his stupidity and then continued, "I wanted to know where you come from? What events shaped you into who you are today?"

"That may take a little longer," Maria began, "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

James stared at her for a moment across the table and then nodded. Maria looked at her watch and sighed.

"Looks like I don't have time, but how about this? How about we take meals together? This way we can get to know each other a little better, I have the feeling that there is more to you than meets the eye, and if you're going to be staying aboard then I'll need to know if I can trust you," Maria said. James laced his fingers behind his head as he considered the reasoning and searched it for ulterior motives.

"That seems fair enough," James said after a few moments, finishing his smoothie. The com panel on the beeped and Maria answered it, Silas spoke from the small box,

"Ma'am, you have a call from a Miss Mirage Koas awaiting on the bridge," Maria was still bothered that Silas called her 'ma'am,' and told him to stop, but he didn't seem to get it. She looked at James,

"You should probably come too, I want you to meet her. She used to work on this ship and is usually a good judge of character," Maria said before leaving. James followed her carefully to the bridge...


	4. Once is a Mishap

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean or any of the characters, They are owned by the fine people at Squareenix and Tri-Ace. I don't own Armored Core, that is owned by Agetec.

_One would think that they have figured this out by now...anyway...ON WITH THE STORY!_

Maria looked at the console to see a very worried Mirage looking back at her. Her hair and clothes were not in their usual ordered arrangement, and she had noticeable bags forming under her eyes.

"...and that's all we know so far," Mirage finished as James entered the bridge, then noticed him. Maria signaled him over, she looked worried.

"This is who I was telling you about," Maria pointed out James, he stepped forward and waved at the beleaguered Klausian. _Alright, I may have slept for 5000 years but even I can tell when something is wrong._

"This is the person you recovered?" Mirage asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Yes, he is, this is James Koltarn," James waved again with the look of a cat who had caught a fish from the bowl. He glanced at Maria questioningly, she mouthed _later_, James nodded slightly sizing the Klausian up.

"I look forward to meeting you after I've had some sleep," Mirage visibly stretched and rubbed her eyes again, "I'll be with you in a few hours, see you planetside." The channel cut out and the screen went back to the starscape outside, it was bad luck for any computer system to revert to a blue screen thanks to a mishap in the early 20th century.

"Who was that?" James asked, his interest piqued.

"She is Mirage Koas, if I had any relation to her, I would call her my mother. At least in the sense of the woman who raised me," Maria explained, "We're meeting her of Klaus, something happened, but she's being awfully cryptic about what's going on."

"Alright, when do we make planetfall?" James asked, eager to stretch his legs, or see anything but these tiresome hallways.

"Well, traveling at warp 4, we should be there in about 12 hours," Maria said. _Not as soon as I would like, but trader's aren't supposed to have agendas._

"Well, I'll be in the cargo bay if you need me for anything," James left the bridge. _Not that I think you will, but in any case it's better to inform her, if only to try to build trust_.

"Alright," Maria slumped into the command couch and gazed at the stars. It was peaceful, serene, safe. That would end shortly...

James entered the cargo bay, and noticed that the clutter had been cleared. _Looks like Silas finished categorizing things based on the data I gave the ship's computer. Great, I even have a space to work_.

He went to the largest clear space he could find. _I need to collect my thoughts._

He began to tense in the center of the space and brought an arm out. Spinning, he drew an imaginary circle far wider than he could reach and crouched into a loose stance. He shot forward with a vicious raking attack that sent an invisible foe into his waiting knee. _There is just too much that doesn't make sense about my survival._

He carefully cleared to his right, sweeping his arms into a more conservative guard. _That reactor shouldn't have been active for 200 years, let alone 5000, nor should the tank have stayed functional for that long. So why did they, against all odds? _

He danced back a step and swept low, fanning his arms in a crescent, he continued this dance for several more hours before he noticed something happening. The energy of the area was changing. He waited and observed the changes, the energy on the ship was much higher than it should be, he heard a shout from the corridor and ran out without a second thought...

Maria startled from her train of thought at the sound of the scream, the sound of death. Her instincts came in and took control of her.

"What was that?" Maria demanded, the worst cases running through her mind.

Silas went pale looking at the screen, he opened his mouth and shut it again. He grazed a few buttons and a horrible sight came on-screen. Maria stared blankly at the screen, out of all the scenarios she had running through her mind, this wasn't one of them.

"Ma'am, what the hell is that?" Silas asked. Maria was silent for a moment.

"No...we defeated those...they shouldn't be here." Maria rambled off in shock. _A pair of proclaimers. Damnit._

She looked at the screen again. The proclaimers were surrounded by dead bodies of anyone unfortunate enough to get near them, there was a sizable amount of debris on the screen. James entered the screen from the cargo bay. She silently pleaded for him to hide, not to become another senseless casualty.

James stepped back, in the direction of the armory door, he entered it. _Good, hide there for now, do the smart thing._

Maria left the bridge, drawing an emergency micro phase gun...

James entered the armory, and immediately began too look for anything remotely familiar. He quickly noticed the lack of shell weapons aboard the ship, even ship safe ones. _Well this should prove interesting, the only fight with beam weapons. And then I come along...great._

He frowned, and opened a locker. _Where did he store it?_

He opened another locker and smiled, looking at an angular suit of armor. _So they did bring it on board._

He took the torso piece and put it on. He glanced at the rest of the armor, donning a pair of boots and armbands with a matching set of holes in them. He took the helmet and looked at it. _I wonder, after all these years._

He put the helmet on and the visor came to life, displaying various things. Most of the information was blank, including the auto map, but the motion sensor still worked. _Like I need all that information twice, still, figure out how to fit a decent power source on here and give it to the crew as a thank you._

He shut the helmet off and looked around some more, finally opening the right locker. _Yes, here it is._

He took a pair of small cylinders and put them in the wrist bands. He then took his assault rifle out and loaded in a fresh clip. _Here I thought I wouldn't need to use these again. No matter, I'll just have to deal with the fallout later._

James stepped out the armory door and followed another scream to the two strange looking creatures.

"What, did they run out of things for Halloween? All they had left were angels?" James taunted to get the creatures' attention. One turned to him, it moved with frightening speed despite it size. It rose up and three towers of light spun from it outward. James weaved through these, reading the fabric of the attack. Then the creature took a staff and threw it to the ground. James braced himself, sensing the spike. A ripple of golden light erupted and threw him back against the wall, he picked himself up and looked at his arms. The fabric was torn and some of his outer casing on his arms had melted down to the plating. _Arm units down 12 efficiency, regenerating systems. Combat Efficiency down 09._

He could see the flesh like substance starting to regrow quickly, he smiled. _I'll bet you didn't see that coming. But still...that did more than I thought it would._

He ran into the first creature, thrusting into it with an edged strike. He clenched his fist and the wrist band activated, sending a blade of cerulean energy through the creature. It let out an angelic scream and retracted, sending out towers of light again. This time one of the towers threw James back a few meters.

James slowly rose to his feet and readied his rifle. _These things are tougher than I thought. Alright, no more mister nice...nice...whatever the hell I am._

He fired one of the larger rounds into the creature, removing an arm. It let out another unearthly cry. James' readings began to shift, he saw a change in the patterns the creatures emitted. _Hah, take that, bet you didn't see that one coming either._

The creature glared at James defiantly, it backed away. _What are you doing? _

James watched in horror as the second creature began to glow, and the first began to gain it's arm back. _Oh damn. Wasn't expecting that one, nice trick though, lot like that hybrid I had to kill for this armor. _

The creature grinned eerily, and charged. James emptied the main clip into the arms and lower section of the creature. The arms detached and it began to move slowly. James ran up and loaded a secondary round and fired it into what looked like the creature's head. The round struck true, showering James with what registered as cyan colored blood.

A second passed, James swung around. _Where is it, where is it? _

The creature knocked him down from behind. _Rear torso, damaged 14, regenerating systems. Combat Efficiency down 21. What the..._

James dropped his rifle and rolled across the deck.

"James!" _Maria?_

"Maria, RUN!" James shouted back, looking at her. _Bakane, why are you here? These things are dangerous._

Maria fired a few rounds at the creature. It slowly turned to face Maria. James seized the opportunity and dashed towards the creature.

"James, get the hell out of there!" Maria shouted as she fired again, "Proclaimers are not to be messed with!" _Oh, so that's what they're called, and I thought that I told you to get out of here._

James dove and set his hands ahead of him, activating his wrist blades. Beams of cerulean light shot through the proclaimer, it shrieked, sending out the towers of light.

"That's what I thought," James said, gaining his footing, fighting against the attack. _All or nothing, now let's see, shift here, brace here, and..._ "Nial Takonai!"

He drove his hands further into the proclaimer, raising it's scream in pitch, and in one violent motion, ripped it from center to the extremities. He held onto the upper half and thrust the free blade through the neck. The screaming stopped and he dropped the limp figure in disgust.

He paused to examine his injuries.The subroutines warned him of several affected areas that would need serious work and more energy than he had at the moment, but he'd live.

_"_James!" Maria shouted as she ran. He turned to be tackled by her, not having the strength to fight her, he went down quite easily. He landed hard as she pinned him to the ground using her legs to hold his arms. She slapped him through the helmet, hard.

"What the hell did you think you were doing? I thought that I told you to run!" Maria shouted angrily, she slapped him again. The limber hybrid wrapped his legs around her waist and reversed the pin attempt.

"What do you mean? What were you doing? I know I told you to get out of there," James looked at her through his battered helmet, the faceplate had cracked slightly but still showing the amount of outrageous amount of energy he had expended in the fight. _What were you thinking?_

"James, do you know how hard those things were for me to beat the first time?" Maria asked. _Pretty damn hard, so how did you beat two so easily? And with so little damage?_

"I would guess that those are what nightmares are made of," James lifted himself off of her and went to pick up his assault rifle, his wounds had visibly healed, leaving fresh scars that would disappear in time.

"You still haven't told me how you beat them..." Maria lifted herself to her feet, stowing her sidearm back into it's special pouch. _Why does he understand? Doesn't he?_

"Special training in hand to hand, ranged weapons, combat maneuvers, and a dose of luck doesn't hurt either," He took off the helmet, he was whiter than the snow that fell on Elicoor II, "Right now, I could use a meal. As my instructor at the academy said 'Shock is very tiring, always get a meal after.'"

"Alright," Maria followed him. _I guess I could use something too. Oh, yeah, I need to notify Silas._ Maria punched the comm plate on the wall, "Silas, stand the ship down and have a cleaning crew clear the hallway. We'll do something more permanent when we reach Klaus."

The dining hall was a mess, as expected. James was already over at the processor, clipped in though an access conduit on his arm.

"And just what do you think that you are doing?" Maria demanded, several unpleasant thoughts running through her head all at once.

"Programming in a few recipes, I can't believe that this good for nothing computer doesn't know how to make a decent or at the very least nutritive meat dumpling, or even tea. It's worse than the Rigel Cybernetics Syndicate's Nutri-pal!" James exclaimed, disconnecting the cable and stowing it back in his arm. He clicked the panel shut as his meal materialized on a steel tray, he picked up the tray and beckoned Maria.

"You mean that you programmed all that, without having to shut that cranky replicator down? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to try to update the recipe directory with the machine turned on?" Maria eyed the machine carefully before punching in a large cheeseburger with fries and a shake. She, unlike the raven, knew the risks of a malfunctioning food replicator. They picked a table and sat, quietly picking at their food.

"So...you said that you would tell me a little about yourself?" James asked, pausing to wipe the cyan blood off of his hands from when he finished the beast.

"Oh yeah, alright, well," Maria began. _How can you treat combat like it was nothing? Haven't you seen your friends die before your eyes multiple times over? Seen comrades that you were eating with minutes before torn apart while you could do nothing but standby and watch helplessly?_

"As I said before, I was born on Earth. I thought that I was raised up normally for a family on the move, until a Vendeen battleship attacked the transport that I was on. My mother hurrying, shoving me towards an escape pod. My father was on the crew of that transport. When I reached the bulkhead, the woman I thought my mother revealed that she wasn't my real parent. I hadn't the time nor the wisdom to ask why, and with that I was flung from the bowels of the ship in a tin can. There I drifted for a few days, until by chance I was picked up by a pair of Klausians by the names of Cliff Fittir and Mirage Koas. You've already met Mirage. They raised me the rest of the way into adulthood, and I guess that you could call them my parents."

"Sounds like a fairly normal childhood, if you're in a video game," James jested, not knowing how close he was to the truth. Maria let the remark slide with a twitch of her eye.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say that, but enough about me for now. You said that Brooke had rescued you from the facility after you awoke?" She changed the subject.

"Yes," _I think that I struck a nerve, best not to press. She'll tell me when she thinks that she's ready, _"Although is wasn't exactly like that, you see, she was part of a test of my model of hybrid. We were about to begin when the facility was attacked, and her AC was trashed. At the time, I didn't remember anything about my real identity, but I was getting vague feelings about her. I rescued her from her disabled machine and we ran. I had to end three lives that day."

"You sound as though you're the one out of the video game, so you obviously escaped," Maria commented, "but what happened in between there and the time you left?"

"Well that's what's the long part is, first we made it to a waiting dropship in the experimental AC that my captors provided me, and fled to Sonai City. Now what made that AC special is that it violated several of the basic design principles, using laser blades on the same arms as hand weapons at the same time, reinforced hands to pierce core armor and kill the pilot, things like that, but it was destroyed in the asteroid impact. Anyway, turns out that word had spread to the Nest faster than anticipated. However, they were overjoyed to find me. The corporation that took me had evidently been under investigation for many months for those very unethical practices. The Nest also suspected the Kusanai corporation was planning to overthrow the Nest and the government of Sonai for some time, and speculated that was why I was developed in the first place. They used me to gain a valuable insight into what the Kusanai corporation was doing, and who the other hybrids were. The Nest got some of them, and I was used to get a few more and claim the experimental equipment that the Kusanai corporation had manufactured, really cool stuff for both hybrids and ACs."

"Wait, you defeated more like yourself, and took their equipment?" Maria asked. _From what I've seen, you're pretty damn unkillable, and you defeated models that were improvements on yourself? How does that work again?_

"Yes, I did kill a number of them. It wasn't easy, the Nest scraped the information from my mind for weaknesses. But the equipment reward was so sweet. If you cleared out the armory of the _Khalam Sonai_ then you found all the equipment that I gathered, including my AC killer weapons. There is the assault rifle, a pair of wrist bound laser blades, a sniper rifle, a full out sword, and a small shoulder mounted rocket launcher. The armor's original owner, a hybrid designated Katelyn, was a pain in the neck to kill, for the very reason that it is hybrid armor," He lifted his arm, the armor had mended itself now, "like the rest of the hybrid equipment, it repairs itself automatically, drawing the energy to do so from the hybrid's outer casing. The same goes for prosthetics."

"I was wondering why you looked less injured now, but it's hard to tell under that armor. I'm curious, how do you regain your energy, if you don't mind me asking?" Maria inquired. _Whatever it is, it must be amazing, to fit that much power into so little space._

"Well, I regain energy just like you or anyone else, through meals and rest," James reported the weather.

"That's not quite what I was asking," Maria set down her shake. _Don't be so literal._

"Oh, you mean the artificial limbs. That's a bit more complicated," James blushed slightly behind his cup of tea, "That energy is generated through a really cool principle. Each limb replaced contains a microscopic fusion reactor. It runs on 2 to the 4th power hydrogen atoms. First the energy is gathered from the fusing of this hydrogen into helium. Now I bet you're wondering, don't you run out of hydrogen? No, because the other half of the reaction is these helium atoms split into hydrogen, releasing more energy that is collected, then the cycle starts over."

"But that..." _Sounds like someone gave a monkey an engineering degree? Breaks all the known laws of physics? _"All right, forget I asked that," Maria glanced at her watch, not wanting to say any of the things going through her mind. She looked at her watch, "Look at the time, we've spent an entire hour in here."

"And I could spend at least 10 more droning on about the really technical, and quite frankly boring, specifications. But I don't think that I want to bore the person who I could call a friend," James said, leaving no room for doubt in his voice that he could. _Well, at least not actively trying to slice me apart for study, pleasure, or just because they didn't like me that much._

Maria tilted her head slightly a thin crescent shaped her lips into a smile. _Brooke used to do that too...I need to stop doing that. It is disrespectful to both of them. But somethings different, I feel strangely comfortable with here._ "By the way, what were those things that we fought in the hallway? You called them proclaimers?"

"Yes..." Maria's smile vanished, and was replaced with sadness. _I watched my friends die far too many times in front of those things_. "Those...are thought to be the product of an error. They were hard enough to kill the first time with the help of my friends. To be frank, I was rather surprised that you killed them as easily as you did." _Great, I've started to inherit Cliff's knack for telling half-truths._

"Well, just remember, looks can be deceiving. I may not look it, but I am not that strong. If I'm damaged enough, or run deplete my energy reserves for an extended period of time, I will die," James sighed, looking at the bottom of his teacup, "They never make these things big enough."

"Those attacks that they used on you are some of their weakest. I doubt that you would be sitting here if they sent their strongest at you."

"They regrew their limbs..." James trailed off, ordering himself a second cup of tea. _Normal things aren't supposed to do that unless their hybrids, and even then only one of them did _that.

"They do that, and they tend to at least partially absorb energy from phase guns. My friends and I fought them we had to use what we know as Symbology..."

"Wai-wai-wai-wai-wait, magic?" James interrupted, intrigued but boring a hole through Maria's head with his stare.

"Yes," Maria said, a bead of sweat formed on her brow from the sudden movement, "to warp the very fabric of our reality in different ways."

"Why don't you just say magic?" James asked, exasperatedly gesticulating for emphasis.

"Well, we evoke this magic through symbols that we form in the air. We study these symbols in depth, so we call that field Symbology," Maria explained. _But he does have a point. Now why didn't I think of that?_

"So you've fought those things before...and won? I have to admit, in all my years as a pilot I've seen some pretty unlikely warriors. You look nothing like them. You look different, altered somehow. I can't put my finger on it, care to explain?" James tilted his head sideways. _Little does she know that I could scan her, but out of respect I keep sensors off. Been slapped for doing that...lesson learned._

"Well, the last time I fought one of those was about 2 years ago, but that's another story," Maria stood, avoiding the second half of his question "I think that's enough for now."

"Alright," James sighed and stared at his second finished cup of tea and set it down. He watched Maria leave. _At least I know that she can fight marginally well, but could I ever trust her with my life the way that I did with team members..._


End file.
